By Steve Holland and Amanda Becker | NEW YORK NEW YORK Polls began to close on Tuesday in the long and bitter race for the White House between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, with last-minute opinion polls giving Clinton the edge in the final hours of the race.Polls in the Eastern time zones of Indiana and Kentucky were the first to close, and a flood of vital battleground states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio - where polls were due to close in the next hour - would provide initial clues about the possible winner.Clinton led Trump, 44 percent to 39 percent, in the last Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll before Election Day. #facebook#News#Thomson Reuters#twitter-follow#newsletters

By Steve Holland | NEW YORK NEW YORK The long and contentious race for the White House between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump hurtled toward its conclusion on Tuesday as millions of Americans cast ballots, with only hours left to vote.Clinton led Trump, 44 percent to 39 percent, in the last Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll before Election Day. #facebook#India#News#Thomson Reuters#follow-reuters#twitter-follow#newsletters

By Chris Kahn | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Americans who had cast their votes for the next president early on Tuesday appeared to be worried about the direction of the country, and were looking for a "strong leader who can take the country back from the rich and powerful," according to an early reading from the Reuters/Ipsos national Election Day poll.The poll of more than 10,000 people who have already cast their ballots in the presidential election showed a majority of voters are worried about their ability to get ahead and have little confidence in political parties or the media to improve their situation. #facebook#News#Thomson Reuters#corrections#reuters-info-channel

BEIRUT Air strikes and government artillery killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women. Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.“The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib," Russia's TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday #India#News#Thomson Reuters#follow-reuters#twitter-follow#reuters-news#reuters-info-channel

By Steve Holland | NEW YORK NEW YORK After a long and exceptionally negative campaign, Americans by the millions voted on Tuesday for their next president as opinion polls showed Democrat Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead over Republican Donald Trump.In a battle that focused on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a former U.S. first lady, senator and secretary of state, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman, made final, fervent appeals to voters late on Monday to turn out at the polls.Clinton led Trump, by 44 percent to 39 percent, in the last Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll before Election Day. A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes, with 270 needed for election. #facebook#India#News#Thomson Reuters#follow-reuters#newsletters#corrections

By Amy Tennery | NEW YORK NEW YORK Betting exchanges and online trading platforms on Tuesday said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a far higher probability of winning than Republican Donald Trump.While Trump made modest gains in probability to win on some online platforms as Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, many gave Clinton a better than 75 percent chance of victory.Bookmaker Paddy Power said Clinton's chance of taking the White House dipped slightly to 81.8 percent on Election Day from 83.3 percent, while Trump's probability improved to 22 percent from 20 percent."The flow of money is relatively even with it slightly favoring Trump," said Paddy Power spokesman Féilim Mac An Iomaire. #facebook#India#News#twitter-follow#corrections#reuters-info-channel

By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON London's police force was guilty of dozens of serious failings in investigations into alleged historical child sex abuse by high-profile figures based on claims that turned out to be not credible, a damning report said on Tuesday.Detectives, including some very senior officers, made a series of mistakes in two inquiries into claims of sex offences and child murders with the suggestion that the crimes had been covered up by the establishment, the report by former High Court judge Richard Henriques found."It is with much regret that I must find such serious failings in the conduct of both Operation Midland and Operation Vincente," Henriques wrote in a letter to London police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe.The Operation Midland allegations, made in 2014 by a complainant known only by the pseudonym of "Nick" were treated as credible by officers and led to ex-lawmaker Harvey Proctor and former army chief Edwin Bramall being identified as suspects in the media after their homes were searched.In his 491-page review, some of which was redacted due to its sensitivity, Henriques found 43 failings in the way the case was handled. These included telling the media Nick's claims were credible and true, and to have believed him for so long without checking inconsistencies in his story. There were also similar errors made in the separate Vincente investigation into Leon Brittan, a former Home Secretary (interior minister) in Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s #facebook#India#News#Thomson Reuters#twitter-follow

By Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD A coalition of mainly Shi'ite Iraqi militias advancing on the Islamic State-held town of Tal Afar plans to seize a nearby military air base from the jihadists, the first time the Iran-backed forces have targeted such a base, militia officials said on Tuesday.The Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces are deployed in the arid region west of Mosul as part of a wider military campaign to retake the largest city under Islamic State control in Iraq or neighbouring Syria. #facebook#News#follow-reuters#twitter-follow#newsletters#reuters-info-channel